There are many different types of carriers for packaging flanged articles, such as beverage cans. Sleeve-type carriers completely enclose the cans and so have little problem with cans escaping from the package. The amount of stock required to form sleeve-type carrier blanks, however, makes the carriers relatively expensive.
Wrap-around carriers use less stock, but due to their open ends they can present a problem in keeping the cans from escaping from the package. Partial end panels have been added to assist in preventing outward movement of the cans, but this adds to the cost of the package and is not economically desirable.
Another type of can carrier is the clip-type which supports the cans from the underside of the can chimes or flanges. One design of a clip-type carrier is comprised of a panel containing apertures corresponding to the tops of the cans, with foldably connected tabs surrounding the apertures. The top portions of the cans extend through the apertures and the edges of the tabs engage the underside of the can chimes to support the cans. This produces an inherently weak carrier due to the fact that much of the panel is removed in forming the apertures. In addition, there is very little surface area capable of receiving printing or other graphics, and the provision of a handle for lifting the carrier further complicates the design and makes the carrier more expensive.
Another clip-type design makes use of slots in a panel for receiving opposite portions of the can chimes, with adjacent panel edges resulting from the slot formation engaging the underside of the can chime portions. This is typically employed in packages comprised of two adjacent rows of cans, so that the elongated area of the panel between the interior slots folds into a wedge-shaped reinforcing rib extending between the sloped upper portions of the cans. Such carriers provide substantially unbroken areas in the top panel for receiving printed indicia, but fall short of providing the desired level of strength and is relatively expensive to produce. Although clip-type carriers use less stock and so are more economical, neither design incorporates end panels, which makes the carriers potentially susceptible to outward movement of the end cans and which in any event permits some degree of movement or swinging motion of the cans when a person holding the carrier is walking. Although such movement may not result in the loss of any cans from the carrier, it produces an undesirable perception to the user that the cans are not tightly packaged.
It would be desirable to provide a carrier which retains the benefits of certain features of clip-type carriers, and in addition provides increased strength and economy of manufacture. Ideally, the carrier should include means to hold the cans in place separate from and supplementary to any can chime locking slots, and should be of a design which can be readily formed by a packaging machine.